[Arran]

A similar thing has been happening with the old arcade games for a good bit now. People buy the old cabs abd gut them to make MAME and JAMMA cabinets out of them. Not unusual to see the most classic games get gutted. I admit to owning a JAMMA Pac-Mac mini cabinet, but it was done tastefully and all he guts but the monitor had been stripped from it when it was found anyways. To look at it, you wouldn't know it is a multicade.
As far as gutting out a complete 38-2 Philco, I have to agree with others on here. It is really just a step below the mighty 38-116 from what I have seen and I almost bought one a few months ago off Craigslist. Heck, I've got a couple radios that were bound for the trash myself. One is a fairly valuable art-deco tombstone by Crosley that is a good performer. I should bring it down to the house to enjoy over the winter months. Anyways, just adding my two cents.

I'm surprised that they can manage to get ahold of an old arcade video game for a cheap enough price to gut, even with fixer upper ones it's hard getting one for under $150 which is surprising since you wouldn't think that most people wouldfind the room. Interestingly enough with many old arcade games you can buy replacement cabinets still along with the light up panels.
Regards
Arran